“You take our guy out, we’re going to go and try to take your guy out. We’re not out to hurt someone, but when that happens …”

Here is what he actually said, unedited off my tape recorder:

“You don’t ever want to see your quarterback get put out of the game. So, personally, we try to put their quarterback out of the game. You don’t try to do nothing illegal but you see someone put your quarterback out, it kind of makes you want to put theirs out.”

Defensive linemen try and sack and knock the starting quarterback out of the game. That’s what they do. Really. No one should be surprised by this.

Kelly was not angry, not out for revenge, just being honest about what he was thinking when Palmer went down. Taking out all the qualifiers in what he said, and not hearing the voice with which he said it, makes a big deal out of nothing.

Associated Press went big with Kelly’s intent to injure Newton, and Yahoo later followed up. Cam Newton kicking Kelly and later bumping, standing over and cursing out an official apparently wasn’t as big a deal. (The official, Jerome Boger not only didn’t eject Newton, but later weakly backtracked and said Newton didn’t bump him and said he meant to say Newton only “disrespectfully addressed him.” We’ll see if the league similarly coddles Newton.